Gumdrops * beats so sweet, you're bound to get ill.® A Different Kind of Drum Machine v1.510/25/2017 Gumdrops is in my iPad since a long time, so today I decided to make its review, but while I was making it I noticed something weird. When I tried to import a file from Audio Share I had a message telling me that Audio Share was not installed.... So I had a look at the App Store description. The last update of Gumdrops was released on July, 30th 2015... Too bad but this App is still available in the App Store and still works very well. I sent an email to the developer today, asking him if will still working on its App. An iOS 11 compatibility will be great. As I said, too bad. Yes, too bad because I really love the concept of this App. A Drum,Machine that allows you to create and play a pattern faster than no others. I explain the App now. 8 tracks or groups. 8 Pads for each. By default the first Pad from a group (down on the left column) plays the 1 and 3 beat. The Pad above plays the beat 1,2,3 and 4. The last Pad of this column plays 1, e, N, a, 2,, e, N, a, 3,....... 31, e, N, a, 32 or 24 depending of your setting. The first Pad from the right column plays the beat 2 and 4. The last Pad plays the 32 notes between the e and a. I said by default because you can set the note (s) playing. If you Tap the brown triangle on the bottom right corner and then tap on a Pad, a pop-up will open. There you will find a step sequencer with a volume parameter. You can set the length to 24 or 32'steps. Above the sample waveform. You can trim the sample, play it reverse, record a new one (iPad microphone or input hardware)'or load another one from the built in library, the cloud, or paste it from Audiocopy. The Audio Share feature no more works as I said it before. Once your sample is loaded you can decided to load it to all the Pads from a group or not. Do you realise what it means? A 64 tracks, 32 or 24 steps, sequencer! A 64 sync Pads soundboard. The green triangle on the bottom left side allows you to select a Pad and play it by a tap. A simple mixer is also available: Pan & Volume for the 8 groups. No song mode. To conclude, I don't really understand why this App is no more developed. Perhaps not enough sales... I don't know... A Super App!
Review by Ed
0 Comments
Soft Drummer So, the Jazz, Latin & Brazilian version of the Dum Machine. A lot of brushes here. The sound is great, a lot of kicks, fat one that I really love... Below, the Rock Drum Machine add on where I forgot to mention a very important thing: The colour of the UI is not the same! After, the Funk Drummer review. I added the videos of Rock Drum Machine & Funk Drummer to this post Below the review of Funk Drummer because it's exactly the same App excepted 2 differences. The first one is that here the patterns come from real Rock, Grunge, FunkRock, Shuffle, Progressive and Odd Time songs. From the Cure, The Doors, Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Nirvana... This is really really great... The second one? An idea? The sound.... I added to this post the Funk Drum Machine video where I used my Blueboard to control the Patterns from the Live Pads Mode. A very long time ago, in the previous millennium, there was no computer, so we had to record a real Drummer to make our recordings. In 1959, Wurlitzer released the first electro-mechanical drum machine called the Side Man, and a lot of others were released after. Cool for electronic music… In the middle of 1970, the first audio samplers start to arrive. With them and a lot of hours of programming, it was possible to “unused’ a Drummer during a recording session. When the iPad was released, some Drum Loop Apps were released. So cool, no more Audio CD with unnamed tracks, and no BPM… at this time, it was a revolution… in 2013, an App has been released: SuperMetronome Groovebox. I remember this day… I said to myself. “It’s not a metronome! It’s the future of the Drum Machine!“… Do you know the LumBeat Apps? I don’t know a better way to create a Drum track in 10 minutes. Not a Drum Machine track! A real Drum Track record with a real Drummer! Yes, I don’t the name of the Drummer, because he is super shy and always happens to hide in my iPad, but when I ask him to Jam on a pattern… wahoo… he jams! Yes, it’s crazy! And the worst, is that you can create your own patterns, select the sound for the 5 drums instruments, and ask the hidden Drummer to play a Fill when you like! Also, a Live Pads mode is available. 8 Pads, 8 patterns that you can control via Midi… A Song mode too. To conclude: There was before and after the LumBeat Apps. I am not kidding! It’s the ultimate Apps for creating Rhythms. I forgot to say 2 things: The sound quality of all the Sound Set is awesome! And 4 effects are also available: Compressor, Reverb, Delay, and EQ. My only problem is that I don’t know how to pay the Hidden Drummer after a recording… A Killer App! A Must Have!
Review by Ed Below the review of Funk Drummer because it's exactly the same App excepted 2 differences. The first one is that here the patterns come from real Rock, Grunge, FunkRock, Shuffle, Progressive and Odd Time songs. From the Cure, The Doors, Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Nirvana... This is really really great... The second one? An idea? The sound.... I added to this post the Funk Drummer video where I used my Blueboard to control the Patterns from the Live Pads Mode. A very long time ago, in the previous millennium, there was no computer, so we had to record a real Drummer to make our recordings. In 1959, Wurlitzer released the first electro-mechanical drum machine called the Side Man, and a lot of others were released after. Cool for electronic music… In the middle of 1970, the first audio samplers start to arrive. With them and a lot of hours of programming, it was possible to “unused’ a Drummer during a recording session. When the iPad was released, some Drum Loop Apps were released. So cool, no more Audio CD with unnamed tracks, and no BPM… at this time, it was a revolution… in 2013, an App has been released: SuperMetronome Groovebox. I remember this day… I said to myself. “It’s not a metronome! It’s the future of the Drum Machine!“… Do you know the LumBeat Apps? I don’t know a better way to create a Drum track in 10 minutes. Not a Drum Machine track! A real Drum Track record with a real Drummer! Yes, I don’t the name of the Drummer, because he is super shy and always happens to hide in my iPad, but when I ask him to Jam on a pattern… wahoo… he jams! Yes, it’s crazy! And the worst, is that you can create your own patterns, select the sound for the 5 drums instruments, and ask the hidden Drummer to play a Fill when you like! Also, a Live Pads mode is available. 8 Pads, 8 patterns that you can control via Midi… A Song mode too. To conclude: There was before and after the LumBeat Apps. I am not kidding! It’s the ultimate Apps for creating Rhythms. I forgot to say 2 things: The sound quality of all the Sound Set is awesome! And 4 effects are also available: Compressor, Reverb, Delay, and EQ. My only problem is that I don’t know how to pay the Hidden Drummer after a recording… A Killer App! A Must Have!
Review by Ed 64 step sequencer / 99 save slots / 4 Drum Tracks / 4 Multi-touch Pads / 3 Signal generators per voice; Noise, Click and Tone / Frequency modulation (on pads 3 and 4) / Amplitude modulation (on pads 1 and 2) / Delay unit (with infinite looping capabilities) / EQ on each Tracks / 5 send effects (distortion, delay, reverb, bit crush, chores/flanger) / 2 master out effects (Soft clip, 4-pole low-pass filter) / Mixer. DrumSynth is an “old” App now. When it was released there was not so many Drum Machine Synthesizer in the App Store like we have now. It's still a good App, a very good one because of the generated sound more than the available features. Only 4 tracks, no Midi, no Song Mode…
Review by Ed BeatHawk is a 16 tracks Drum Machine, or Soundboard, or DrumPads, or Sequencer or a Workstation. The App is so well done that you can use it as you like. So well done that the Audio Unit version allows you to do exactly the same things that you can do with the Stand Alone version. Note that it is not so usual... On the main window, 16 Pads. On their left side, a Volume button: Tap it and play the selected Pad (track) with the 16 Pads. Each Pads come with a different volume setting (from 7 to 127). A Mute button allows you to Mute all the desired Pads. The Scale window turns BeatHawk into a real sequencer because of its two one octave keyboards. Yes, unlike a lot of Drum Machines, here you can play chords, select a scale and the root note as well. Top! A little further down, the Erase button, the Select and the Repeat (Pad) button. On the other side, the Edit window where you can load a Sample from the Library (you can also import your own samples from here),.set the pan, pitch, and gain of the selected Pad. Also, a Delay, a Reverb, a LP and HP Filter send slider. (The parameters for these 4 FXS can be found in preferences menu). A Record window where you can record the input signal, an ADSR window, a Sample window where you can Trim and Stretch a sample. The Pattern window where you can select a Pattern, copy it and paste it, set its length from 1 bar to 16 bars, and the shortcut to jump to the sequencer. Here also a great feature... depending of the way you are using BeatHawk, or the track you like to edit you can switch ftom a conventional sequencer (select a track and the grid editor will display the note's pitch on the vertical axis) or the "Drum Machine" sequencer where all the tracks are display on the grid. The song mode is really great too and here also a great feature which allows you to mute or not a track from a Pattern. In summary, BeatHawk is more than very well done... BeatHawk is very, very, very well done. Very very easy to use. You can automated all the parameters. The Audio Unit version is awesome and impressed me a lot... Before to say the magic quote, I have to talk about the online Store. so many Packs there.. so many kinds of packs... middle east, asia, vintage keynoards, piano,..(Check out the last section of the tutorial below). So, it's time to say the magic quote now: A Killer App, a Must Have!
Ton: Drum Machine is a little Drum Machine for Free! 6 tracks, 16 patterns but no song mode. All steps can be automated and play a different samples. Available parameters for a track or a specific step: Tune, Saturation, 3 Filters: BP, HP & LP with a frequency selection knob and a Q too. Also, an Attack, a Decay, a Hold, a Pan and a Volume. 2 aux are available with a send for each tracks or steps: a Delay & a Reverb. In summary for Free and without any ads, we have a little but powerful Drum Machine which can generated great sounds. A Super App for Free! A big thanks to the developer!
Review by Ed Some numbers: 16 instrument’s tracks / 2 aux / 1 Master Track with 2 inserts / 18 effects: Bitcrusher, Chorus, Compressor, Delay, Distortion, Parametric EQ, Phaser, Destroyer, Flanger, Space Pan, Sub Generator, Limiter, Analog Delay, Analog Chorus, Detune, Leslie, EQ, Vocal Filter / 4 banks of of 16 patterns per project / Pattern length from 1 to 64 / Song mode: 128 patterns / Expression Pad: 16 suitable effects, BandPass, HighPass, LowPass, SEM LP, SEM BP, SEM HP, MMF 1, MMF 2, Tape Drop, Reverse, Strobe, Pan, Rep Mix, BitCrush / 1 Live Pad: 7 effects, Repeat, Tape Drop, Reverse, Pan, Strove, Rep Mix, BitCrush / 6 samples layers with 5 play modes / Record Sample or import via Audiocopy, the general pasteboard, iTunes files sharing,& Library / 6 Choke groups / 1 Steps Looper / 1 track Roller / Per Track: Pitch, Attack, Decay, Freq Shif, Shift Rat, Shift Pan, Volume, Pan, Send 1, Send 2, 4 Filter Types with Cut-off & Resonance / Automation for all parameters / Huge Samples Library. In Summary: iSpark is a very powerful Drum Machine with a “conventional UI”, eBay to understand, easy to use and easy to remember. The quality of all the effect is really great and some of them are really interesting and not so usual in a Drum Machine like the Sub Generator, the Space Pan and the Vocal Filter. The Sample quality is perfect and I love to have a lot of natural Kits too. The 6 Samples layers and with their different playing mode offer a lot of possibilities. The 2 expression Pads located in the perform page as well as the Song mode allows you to use iSpark for live performances. To conclude: if you like to have a powerful Drum Machine with a conventional UI with natural and electronic kits, iSpark is for you. If you like to shape your sounds, and even more if you don’t have a lot of plugins Apps, iSpark is for you. If you have 50 years old, white hair, green eyes, if you weight 61 kilos and are 1,74m tall, this App is for you too. A Killer App, a Must Have!
A lot of changes since this review... 5 days after, Audiobus support has been added. 1 month later, the Core Midi. November, 15th 2013 migration of RD4 from a Paid App to a Free one with an offer in app purchases. In December of the same year, the integration of the Novation Launchkey mini. One year later, in December 2014 the Ableton Link support. In February more Drum Kits were added. The last update was released this year, in May. The 2.3.6 version: bugs fixed. Published on 20 Sep 2013 RD4 is a little workstation. 4 Tracks. It comes with 1 Synthesizer, called Analog: 3 oscillators, 1 AASR and 1 Filter section. The Analog has it's own grid editor. Very minimal: you can only set the keys and the length of the notes. A Baseline (r): 4 waveforms to chose from, a filter section and its step by step editor. The Bassline is certainly the module that I like the least in this App... To finish, 1 Drum Machine. Its only "shaping" parameter available for an instrument is a Punch button. As I said, RD4 is a 4 track workstation. The thing really cool is that you can use any of this instrument in any track... You can use it with 4 Drum Machine, or 3 Bassline and 1 analog... As you like! You also have a Mixer, 4 Effects (Distortion, Phaser, Delay and Reverb). one Send for each track but 4 send 4 each Drum instruments. A Pattern Mode also allows you to play a pattern for each track (8 patterns can be saved for each instrument) from 1 to 2, to 3, and so on. 2 random modes are also available. To conclude, the App is very well done but... The Analog Synthesizer is really cool. It is the module I prefer in this App. You have enough parameters to shape your sound as you like. The Bassline, as I said, is the one I love the least... Not fat enough, for me... The 2 Drum Machines are cool, but it would be nice to be able to create a custom kit... The live record mode is really cool, but more sharing features. At this moment, we only have: iTunes File Sharing,SoundCloud and Dropbox. Ok, it's cool, but I really need to have the AudioCopy / Paste at very least. Hard to rate it, ... Because RD4 is very well done, very simple to understand, but I want more! :-) At the same time, it is only version 1 of this App... I'm sure that it has the potential to be a Killer App... App Store description :
Turn your iPhone or iPad into a musical instrument! RD4 - Groovebox is a music making app with virtual analog synthesizers, drum machines and effects. Compose and arrange your music in real-time. Choose instruments individually for the 4 channels. Record live or set notes with the dedicated sequencer or piano roll of each instrument. "This is no desktop app crammed onto a touchscreen. It seems the interface has been designed around your fingertips." Peter Kirn from CDM (createdigitalmusic.com) Via in-app purchase: Upgrade to premium and unlock the following features: Save Song, Export Loop, Audio Session Recording, Share Sounds, All 10 Drum Kits, All 5 Effects, Mixer Instrument Configuration, Effect Bus Configuration, MIDI Input and MIDI Clock Sync in/out. This multi-touch enabled app makes it simple to invent unique loops and musical phrases. Manipulate the sound of the synthesizers by tweaking the oscillators, resonant filters and audio envelopes. Add audio effects like reverb, distortion, phaser, filter and delay to your sounds. Appropriate both for experienced musicians and beginners. Feature Overview Mixer - 4 channel rack mixer - Instrument selection for each channel - Volume control with level meter per channel - Direct audio effect channel assignment - Tempo control with tap tempo - Channel mute and solo Sequencer - 2 banks with up two 8 bars per instrument - Adjustable play modes from 1 to 8 bars and random modes - Song Mode with a length of up to 99 bars Choose between two virtual analog synthesizers and the drum machine for each channel: Analog - Modeled after legendary monophonic synths of the '70s - For fat sounding bass and powerful lead sounds - 3 oscillators with 6 different waveforms - Each oscillator can be tuned precisely and has a warmth control for the typical analog sound - Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release envelope generator - Pitch wheel - Low-pass filter (24dB/oct, 4-pole) with knobs for cutoff, resonance and an Attack/Decay/Sustain envelope generator - Recording of played notes in real-time - Piano Roll for editing recorded notes comfortably - Or compose by drawing notes directly with the piano roll in 1/16 or 1/32 resolution - Piano roll editing features: Transpose Pattern, Shift Sequence and Quantize Pattern Bassline - Reminiscent of the legendary 303 synthesizer - Create bubbling basslines and screaming lead sounds - Successor of the famous synthesizer Rubberduck from d-lusion - High-quality low-pass filter with resonance, cut-off, and envelope controls - Oscillator with 4 types of waveforms - Real-time step sequencer with accent and slide Beats - Program beats with 10 classic drum kits: 808, 909, 606, CR-78, Linn, KR55, RX11, RZ1, DMX, DPM48 - Booming kick drums, snappy snares and throbbing percussions - 8 channels per drum kit - Punch control for volume and envelope adjustments - Accent programmable for each drum channel - Free assignable effects for each drum sound - Channel mute, Closed Hi Hat mutes the Open Hi Hat - Real-time pattern based step sequencer Audio effects: - 5 effects: Reverb, distortion, filter, phaser and delay - Real-time controllable - X/Y control field for each effect - 4 effect sends - Chaining of 2 effects Technical features: - Audiobus support - Core MIDI support - Connects to all available MIDI input sources automatically - MIDI Clock Sync support, in/out - Automatic MIDI input focus when switching Instruments - Multi-touch control - Live session recording - Audio loop export feature - Session save capability - Cut/copy/paste pattern Ruismaker FM description from the website developer: Ruismaker FM is like the crazy twin-sister to the classic Ruismaker drum synth. Instead of using virtual analog modelling, it sports a single, custom FM (‘Frequency Modulation’) synthesis engine capable of creating a vast bandwidth of different types of sounds. The theory behind FM is too complex to go into right here, but essentially it works by taking an oscillator (called ‘the carrier’, like a sine wave or a pulse wave) and changing its frequency so fast that all sorts of overtones - known as ‘sidebands’ - become audible in the signal. Although FM can be done using analog equipment, the most effective way to do it is using digital algorithms (analog’s charming quirkiness tends to introduce side effects that sometimes makes FM hard to control properly in a musical way). Ruismaker FM uses this type of digital FM synthesis to create percussive sounds. It is capable of creating powerful synth kicks, noisy snares and metallic hihats, but truly comes to life when doing more unconventional sounds (zaps, blips, whirrs, clicks, hollow or metallic effects) or even bass lines. Because it is designed to do percussion, it comes with some specific parameter behavior and waveforms that are optimised for percussive sounds and effects - typically not found on other FM synths. If you like to read the Ruismaker FM review, read the words in bold and underlined.only. If you like to read the Ruismaker review read all words excepted the underlined words. I already reviewed Troublemaker & Ruismaker from this developer. I will review soon, Ruismaker FM, the FM version of Ruismaker I hope that I will be able to review all the Apps from Brian Ross. If not, very very sad I will be, because a big fan of this developer I am… (one more time, I am talking like a Jedï…). I love the UI, I love the generated sound, I love the concept… I also love their User manual which allows me to save a lot of time while I am making my review and tutorial… So, Ruismaker FM… first, if you download this App, use an headphone, you will be able to listen to the quality of the generated signal. A lot of dynamics which is not so easy to find with in a Drum FM Synthesizer Machine and this even if you start to shape the sound of an instrument track. I love this… Ruismaker FM its two modules. Euh, no, it’s 2 Apps in one. A Midi Drum FM Synthesizer Machine and a Sequencer, an Euclidean Pattern sequencer… an Euclidean Midi Pattern sequencer… an Euclidean Polyrhythm Midi Pattern sequencer… I think that I have to make a little break and to give you some explanations… Why it’s not 2 modules, but 2 Apps? With the Audio Unit version, there is no sequencer as we have in the Stand Alone version and in the IAA one… does it means that we can not use the Ruismaker Euclidean Pattern sequencer? No… with Audiobus 3 you can load Ruismaker FM as a Midi input… at this moment, you can use it as midi sequencer to control another App, but you can also use it to control the Audio Unit version of Ruismaker FM loaded in Audiobus 3 or in another App. Check out the tutorial below… note that you can Tap on the GM keymap button located on the first parameters line of the Drum Synthetiser to play the 6 8 available instruments tracks with the Audiobus Midi keyboard or another one. Jump to the C4 octave of your MIDI Controller and play.. Now Euclidean. Euclid was a Greek mathematician from 300 B.C. who came up with an algorithm to calculate the Greatest Common Divisor (GCD) for any set of two numbers. http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/publications/banff.pdf. It means that this sequencer is not a classic sequencer… don’t try to tap on the grid,… no events will be added to it. Use the Beats button to add beats… set the number of steps for each of 6 8 available tracks from 1 to 32 and use the shift button to move all the selected tracks in an Euclidean style. Add an accent or not, use the Mutation button to add random beat to your track and if your not happy with this track, tap on the randomize button… you can also load a sequence from the Library or save yours. Before to conclude, let’s talk about the Drum FM Synthetiser. 6 8 instruments tracks. You can load 8 Snares, 8 Kicks if you like, or else and save this Preset. The first line of parameters are applied to all tracks instruments: Delay time & Feedback / Reverb and Volume. An edit button open a menu and allows you to randomize the parameters for all or the selected channel. To initialise a channel, to copy and paste it too. An High Pass and a Peaking filter are also present on this line a randomize button is also available. On the second line, the parameters for the selected track instrument: an Oscillator & Pitch, a Modulator with amount & Speed, Attack, Decay, Saturate, Tune / Decay / Personality / Drive / Bitcrush / Delay Send, Pan and Level. The line of Pads below allows you to play the sound of the selected track and select an Instrument preset. So, now my conclusion… I love the Drum Synthetiser… the generated sounds… I also love the sequencer… the possibilities that he can offer to an ex Punk, ex New Wave, ex Rocker and old Electro music lover. I remember the day I listened to the first Tom York solo album… the Eraser… the Drum programming… so far from me… my internal Drum Machine programming system. And it’s too bad because, I love this kind of rhythms so much… Euh, no, it’s was too bad…. Now, I will use the Ruismaker App… a Killer App. A Must Have!
Review by Ed WerkBench is an Audio Sequencer. An unconventional one... 2 independent Docks. For each Docks, 4 Patterns (16 steps). The 2 Docks can be played in sync or in chain mode. 4 or 8 Patterns. A loop can be set independently for each. Its length too, so you can can create Polyrhythm patterns. For each step a Sample can be recorded via the built in microphone of your iDevice or Audiobus. For each step an automation can be set for Level, Pan, Attack, Decay, High Pass, Low Pass, Pitch, Crunch, Echo and Reverb. The delay allows you to save 1 step... I explain: if you record a kick to the step one, then, set the Delay Time (in sync mode) to 4. Your Kick will play the steps 1, 5, 9 and 13. The Delay & Reverb can be applied to the 2 Docks independently. For each Docks, a Filter, a Waveform selection with an Attack, Decay and Release parameters. A switch allows you to apply your settings to the selected pattern or all. You can easily copy or mute a Pattern or a step. You can also import a backing track or record it via Audiobus. A Trigger mode allows you to play your samples by a Tap on a step or via a midi controller. This was for the technical side. Now, let's talk about playing with it. WerkBench is a creative tool... its purpose is not to create a drum pattern as you would with a Drum Machine.. No, here the principle is rather to record sounds with your voice, another or several other Apps and create an original pattern, quickly while having a lot of fun. I really really love this App: a Killer App, a Must Have!
Review by Ed |
AuthorEd Archives
December 2019
Because I can read everywhere a Policy...
|